Marsham reluctantly admitted it.
"My sister, too, will be hostile. Don't let's forget that."
Sir James shrugged his shoulders, with the smile of one who is determined to keep his spirits up.
"Well, my dear Marsham, you have your battle cut out for you! Don't delay it. Where is Lady Lucy?"
"In town."
"Can't you devise some excuse that will take you back to her early to-morrow morning?"
Marsham thought over it. Easy enough, if only the engagement were announced! But both agreed that silence was imperative. Whatever chance there might be with Lady Lucy would be entirely destroyed were the matter made public before her son had consulted her.
"Everybody here is on the tiptoe of expectation," said Sir James. "But that you know; you must face it somehow. Invent a letter from Ferrier--some party contretemps--anything!--I'll help you through. And if you see your mother in the morning, I will turn up in the afternoon."
The two men paused. They were standing together--in conference; but each was conscious of a background of hurrying thoughts that had so far been hardly expressed at all.
Marsham suddenly broke out: